Messages

The rat cutting tin sheets was over the top for me.

I plead rule of cool. Just like Heltonjon

Seeing Lost & Found on the list was unexpected. Thanks for making my day 

Nice round 

The Sledgehammer Approach by cat

Spoiler

Probably the most sensible solution in the bunch. The setting is used sparingly but the puzzles would be pleasant to solve.

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The Heavy Approach by The Great Underground Empire

Spoiler

It smells of sweat. I suddenly picture mountains of coal and a soot-stained adventurer.
It sounds fun and I could follow the logic so I went with this one.

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The Long and Silly Approach by heltenjon

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Holy Rusted Metal! A magnetic rat? A lifting contraption made of fishing lines and an umbrella? It's creative in spades and reading the walkthrough was very entertaining.
However, I can feel some frustration if I was to play this game

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[long approach]

Are you ready for the long approach? 

Spoiler

Use WATER on GREASY RAG.
Then use DAMP RAG on DARK LIGHTBULB. Surprise! The light is on and the old furnace is still working. The lightbulb was just extremely dirty.

A thorough inspection of the LONG PIPES reveals that they are actually SPARE ELECTRICAL RESISTANCES.
They fit within the walls of the furnace.
Yeah, the furnace has been modernized at some point and it's electric now.
The plant employees couldn't be bothered to remove the coal carts. Therefore they're still  lying around in the power plant.
Another adventurer came before you and failed to figure this out. So he tried to burn coal in the furnace. Hence the ashes. You'll have to SHOVEL them out before you can use the furnace.

Pick up the PIECES OF LADDER scattered on the ground.
Put them on the floor in the furnace.
Mini game: you need to reassemble the ladder.
The pieces won't hold together but at least it looks like a ladder now.

Taking a closer look on the LARGE METAL SHEET, you discover that it's THIN TIN with which the plant employees coated steel plates to produce tin cans. You pick it up. It's thin but not enough to be torn up with your bare hands.

Use SLEDGEHAMMER on BRICK to get BRICK FRAGMENTS
Use SUPERGLUE on BRICK FRAGMENTS to get STICKY BRICK FRAGMENTS.
Use STICKY BRICK FRAGMENTS on the wall to cover all the holes used by the rat, but one.
Place the LARGE THIN TIN SHEET against the last hole in the wall, holding it with your hands.
In front of it, put a PIECE OF CHEESE on the floor.
The hungry rodent soon starts to cut through the sheet with its teeth to access the cheese (it acts kind of like an electrical jigsaw).
Mini game: by manipulating the plate around the teeth of the rat, you get SMALL TIN SHEETS.

Wrap the SMALL TIN SHEETS around the broken ladder parts in the furnace.
Get out of it, close the door and turn the valve handle. The furnace heats up.
After a while, the TIN melts on the LADDER PARTS.

The temperature cools down and you pick up the REPAIRED LADDER in the furnace.
Now, you can access the catwalk upstairs!
There's a door up there. Its handle is rusty and you can't turn it.
Wrap the CHAINS around the handle.
Insert the CROWBAR in the CHAINS to get extra leverage. After some efforts, the handle gives in and you're able to leave this area.

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John Frusaint.

Here you go:


It's not going to win me any playability point, but I wanted to try an unusual angle.

I have something in the works.


Nice atmosphere.
Some elements are textured and others not. Is it finished?

I'd be game to try the Cotswolds again. Hopefully, that won't cause a space-time continuum breach and bring back the COVID epidemic.

I don't mind having kids around either (unless they're pesky )

This game is massive! I'm still playing it but I can already offer some feedback:

Good variety of puzzles. The previous entries were harder in my memory. I wasn't stuck for very long so far - except for one hacking mini game where I failed to notice a crucial element.

The sliding puzzles and hidden objects offer a nice change of pace.
The dress up games work well. There's a game breaking bug in the robot suit mini game:

Spoiler

If you put on her right shoe before the leg, she says "I need to put the leg first" and the shoe disappears.

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The racing game is my least favorite one. It feels stiff and unforgiving, like in Barn Runner 2: The Ejection Rejection.
I can only dream of a gameplay à la Last & Furious

Risqué banter has always been part of the charm of the Barn Runner series.
This one goes even further. It can be wordy at times, with the erotic daydreams of Noriko slowing the story to a crawl.
It's easy to forget that you're in the middle of a robot revolution.
Is it a good or a bad thing? Your mileage may vary.

Although it's been a while since I played the previous entries, I haven't lost the thread of the story so far.

Nice job with Noriko's French. Pedants' corner:

Spoiler

"Rillettes" = potted meat. Not necessarily salmon. It can be made of pig, goose, duck...

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Thanks Ponch

Spoiler

The little green bars on the edges of the rectangular tiles are the connection points too.

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I failed to notice that before you pointed it out.

Nice first game. You made significant efforts on the animations.
The spoken lines were a nice touch. Too bad some dialogs don't synchronize with the actions.

The frantic harp music gets unnerving pretty fast IMO. Somehow, it suits the company of this boisterous little brat.

I'm interested to see where you go from here

+1

I've played for about 15 minutes.

Lots of explosions and items to pick up so far.

Spoiler

I'm trying to hack the keypad of the door to the office.
I zapped it with the stun gun and used my Hacklink on it.
But I'm a bit confused by the hacking mini-game.
I'm supposed to "align the green pathways so that they form a continuous route from one side of the Hacklink screen to the other."



Since there's no horizontal green connection between the 3rd and 4th circuits, I guessed the green line on top joins the green line at the bottom. But this combination doesn't work. What am I missing?

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Oops, I let the deadline slip by.

That's a cool idea, @newwaveburritos .
Also a bit crazy: showing a reflection at low resolution with this limited palette   
You couldn't use a gradient yet you made it work.
Congratulations for this new demonstration of your talent.

I think you can host the next Background Blitz, unless @mattcoles has something on the way?

[jwalt.]

In game usability: jwalt. Because it's less specific (but we didn't know the voting criteria beforehand).
Capturing original character: newwaveburritos. Both do a good job. I just flipped a coin.
Technique: newwaveburritos. Interesting dithering in jwalt's entry. Yet I chose the picture of newwaveburritos because the flashy and improbable colors work really well IMO.

@jwalt : I don't know Wallace Beery, but my brothers and I enjoyed Charlton Heston as Long john Silver when we were kids.

It's all because of @Mandle
I was wondering what song he used for his last game.
Turns out it was a tribute from Weird Al Yankovic to They Might Be Giants. And down the rabbit hole I fell.

Here's my entry:



Hopefully, that'll do.

I'm not familiar with I. L. Caragiale but I appreciate this time period so I'll be looking forward to your game.

Here's my two cents:

- Rather than moving the text around to keep it visible, you could use the Speech Bubble module.

- About the art: lovely semi-realistic style for the characters. The background should be drawn on a bigger piece of paper:
the lines are too thick and it lacks details compared to the characters.

- About animation: good work on the facial expressions. For the rest of the body, I'd suggest using a 2D bone-rigging animation software like DragonBones or Spriter to add some life.

- Nice colors.

- interesting setting.

Keep up the good work.

I'm working on a little tribute to the classic GameBoy

You nailed the esthetic.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Hey dudes! I wanna give a big shoutout to @Creamy who's been super amazing working with me on getting this theme out as I was super distracted by real life! (Really, all the credit goes to them.)

No problem, I get busy too. And you sure helped with the blurb and feedback.

No idea who I'll draw but count me in